JustSayItDesignDoc

=Just Say It= Melissa Hughes Daniel Pearson - I just have it link to my Wiki Page - Is That OK? Marie Varner //Put the names of the authors here, with links to e-mail addresses or personal home page//

// Put some graphical representation of the game here. //

Instructional Objective
//What will the learners learn from this game (or more likely, what learning objectives are being reinforced by this game)? If it's for school use, where does it fit into the curriculum? (You can find links to curricular frameworks// [|//here//] //).//


 * Learners will gain awareness and use, in context, of early developmental sounds for simple speech articulation. Within the game, these would include: /p/ /b/ /m/ /n/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/ /r/ /l/ /s/.
 * Learners will gain awareness and use, in context, of letter /s/ clusters (initial & final sounds, sp-, st- -sk).
 * Learners will increase vocabulary development and labels as a by-product of game play.

Learners & Context of Use
//Who is the game designed for? Describe them in terms of their age, grade level, affinity towards the subject matter, and anything special about them that the reader should know. Where would the game be used? If in a school, what accomodations would you need to make to do it in a typical classroom? Is it designed to be played more than once? What would happen prior to the game? What would happen after it?//

Just Say It is an educational game designed to assist parents or teachers of young children who are in need of speech articulation practice. The age range for the players may be PreK (age 3+) to 4th grade (age 10). The learner may compete alone or with a similar small group of players, as the parent or speech therapist acts as the facilitator for the game. The game might serve as a nice culmination activity reinforcing a speech and language skill, or as extra practice at home. Just Say It is not designed to be played independently. In a classroom setting, the game may work well if the teacher or an older cross-age tutor acted as a facilitator, and only in a small group setting. Because of the nature and level of the playing cards, older players, who are not specifically in need of speech or language practice, may find the game less than challenging. Just Say It may be played repetitively, as much as the facilitator deems necessary for each learner to master a specific speech skill. Although the main focus of the game is to model articulate speech sounds to native English speakers, Just Say It might also transfer well to beginning and early-intermediate English Language Learners (ELLs) acquiring vocabulary.

Competing Products
//What's out there that covers the same content as this game? How is your game similar to others? How is it different and better? (You can check the// [|//Board Game Geek//] //search engine and the// [|//Educational Learning Games catalog//] //for school-oriented titles.//

1. Speechettes - Shopping Spree Game (Perkilou Products) 2. Lipsync (Educational Insights) 3. The Entire World of R Game Boards (Say It Right) 4. Prevocalic /r/ & /rl/ Phoneme Set (Say It Right) 5. /ar/ Phoneme Set (Say It Right) 6. Pronunciation Board Game (ESL Games World) 7. French Start Board Game (Eye on Games) 8. Artic Chipper Chat (Super Duper Publications)

The majority of speech therapy learning utilizes flash cards or flip books. Even upon inquiring at an educational store, they were only able to recommend flash card sets, or the use of flash cards with other board games. Most therapists use the speech therapy flash cards to integrate with age-old games, such as Go Fish, Guess Who, and I Spy. The few games that were located through an online search, only revealed games that are specific to one particular articulation problem (/r/, /k/, etc), as in three of the examples above (3-5). It is our aim to create a board game that already incorporates cards similar to the flash cards used by speech therapists. We also plan to integrate the necessary mouth movements to form particular speech sounds as are demonstrated on the Lipsync cards above (#2). The Speechettes - Shopping Spree Game is the most similar to our proposed design, however, it appears to be designed to a more advanced age group than preschool children. We hope with our design that the game can be compatible for preschoolers to 10 year olds, with the addition of more advanced reading and questions for the older age group, while still being visual enough for preschoolers to understand. With the idea of collecting cards on their bingo cards, players will hunt within a community for particular words used in the game play.

**Object of the Game**
//What's the game goal? What's the end state that players are striving for (e.g., to be the first to reach the Finish square, or to be the first to reach 100 points.)//

To be the first to fill in five Bingo squares in a row - either horizontally, vertically or diagonally - by moving from location to location and acquiring objects by pronouncing words correctly. Depending on the level and needed practice of the player, "wins" may also be modified and determined by the facilitator. For example, a "win" may be if a player gets two rows filled, or "black-out" play when the whole board needs to be filled.

Content Analysis
identification of the sound of the letter identification of the letter within a word || flash card images - multiple images on a card - back of card with prompts for parent to ask child and promote ||
 * ~ Content Type ||~ Content Elements ||~ Game Elements ||
 * ===**Facts**=== || identification the shape (picture) of the letter
 * ===**Concepts**=== || * to articulate the letter sound correctly
 * to use a word with a target letter sound in a sentence correctly
 * to use a word with a target letter sound in a sentence with an attribute (ie. adjective) ||  ||
 * ===**Principles**=== ||  ||   ||
 * ===**Procedures**=== ||  ||   ||
 * ===**Processes**=== || * voiced and voiceless shaping of the mouth
 * circle lips for "W"
 * hand motions for an "S", or "T", and other tactile representation ||  ||
 * ===**Probabilities**=== ||  ||   ||
 * ===**Context**=== || * saying the word in isolation
 * saying the word in a sentence
 * saying the letter sound at the beginning, middle or ending of the word
 * saying the word in different tenses, or singular vs. plurals || flash card images ||
 * ===**Vantage Points**=== ||  || ||

Game Materials
//List each of the physical objects one would find in the box. For example, the board, each type of card, each type of prize or token, etc.) After listing the materials, describe each in as much detail as needed. Include illustrations of the board and each type of card.//


 * **Board** with several graphic locations on it [Clothing Store, Farm, Grocery Store, Park, Party Store]
 * **Location playing cards** - 5-10 cards for each location. Each card has a large picture in the center and 4 smaller pictures in the corners. Each picture is labeled with the word that describes it. I envision a website where you could choose the sounds you want the learner to practice, then pick the cards they would use. You would then be sent to a webpage with the list you of words chose. Then you could print the webpage creating a new list.
 * **Just Say playing boards** - (These are blank Bingo-style player cards to mark when a player has visited a location. Cards will be divided into 5x5 rows & columns. The top of each column will have an image to represent a location on the board.)
 * **Markers (playing pieces)** for each player.
 * **Spinner board** with wedges representing each location
 * **Rule Guidelines** - TBA on a website. These may include supplementary oratory prompts to extend the practice. See Rules section of wiki for details.

**Time Required**

 * // How long would the game take to set up? How long to play? Would one carry a game over several play periods? //**

Set up time for this game should take less than 10 minutes. Playing cards will be color coded for easy sorting and stacking. If playing pieces are lost, than any small object may substitute for keeping track of where a player is on the board. Since Gamecrafter only provides the plastic spinner points, the spinner board and pointer will need to be assembled together by either hole-punching the board's center circle, simply resting the pointer on top of the board, or another safe adhesive method by an adult. Although the gameplay time may depend on chance, players may play as long as a facilitator/teacher may feel the player needs the practice with pronunciation. Just Say It may certainly be played over several play periods since there is a large variety of cards and sounds to practice saying orally.

**The Rules**

 * //List the rules as you would provide them to the players. Use a numbered list and keep the rules short, simple, and unambiguous. If there are multiple forms of the game for different objectives or different levels of challenge, separate the rules accordingly rather than merging them into one set.//

Players** This game is played with at least 1 adult player and one or more younger players. The adult player is the Facilitator. They assist with pronunciations and any other aspect of game play needing assistance.

Lay the game board out and place each pile of location cards near their respective picture on the board. Cards are color coded by location. • Red = Clothing Store • Brown = Farm / Pet Store / Co-op • Blue = Grocery Store • Green = Park/Playground • Confetti = Party Store
 * Setup**
 * 1) Players choose a playing piece and can place it on any location to start.
 * 2) Each player gets a Just Say It playing board.

5. Once the player has completed the pronunciation tasks asked by the facilitator, the player is rewarded with that card and marks it on his card, ending their turn.
 * How to Play**
 * 1) Play starts with the youngest player, then proceeds in order of age. Each player on their turn spins the spinner and moves to the location indicated. The spinner has six images, one for each location.
 * 2) Once the player moves to the location, the player may choose a playing card from that location's pile.
 * 3) In order to obtain that card and mark it on their playing board, the player must pronounce the word(s) on the location card. The facilitator should assist with pronunciations as necessary.
 * 4) For younger players, you might ask her to say 3 words. For older players, 5 words. You can also use the prompts suggesting in the rules guidelines - who, when, where, what, how sentence frames - to encourage practice of the sound on the card, by answering the questions rephrasing it using the main word. These may include the following:
 * (If card is an animal) Where might you find __? What do you think__ _ eats? How does a _ __move?__
 * __(If card is an object) What does a do? Who uses a _ ? What color is a__ ?
 * __(If card is a place) What do you do at _? What do you see at a__ ?

The game is over when one player (or all players) have filled in 5 in a row or column of playing cards played in the game. Again, depending on level, a "black-out" version of the game may be played, which would require the first player to completely cover his board to be the winner.
 * Finishing the Game**

Motivational Issues
// Describe how the game engages the learner. How does it make use of curiosity, challenge, control, fantasy, competition, cooperation, etc.? (No one game will do all of these things, so focus on the particular strengths of this particular game.) Make specific reference to the theoretical readings associated with this course. //

Just Say It aims to engage the speech learner by creating an engaging opportunity for articulation practice. Since this game targets a younger audience, the game will include locations school-age children will be able to readily identify. At this age, children often want to mimic adult responsibilities, such as shopping, so locations such as the Grocery Store, Pet Store, or Party Store will tap into fantasy role-playing. Likewise, other location choices, such as the Playground or Farm, will be just as appropriate for their age & interests.

Design Process
// Describe the process you went through in putting the game together. What were your first thoughts? How did you enhance your ideas? What ideas did you consider and reject (and why?). How did you gather background information? What did you do to see if there are similar games out there? What did you do to get feedback on the idea? How did you flesh out the game to the point of having a playable prototype? How did you gather feedback from that? What lessons did you learn from this that you'll carry to your next game design project? //

Our original discussions involved just figuring out what types of processes are currently in place with regard to games that may be available to speech therapists. Upon further examination, it became clear to us that flashcards are the most commonly used forms of materials for teaching speech to young children. Speech therapists generally use the flashcards to integrate them with common board games, such as "I Spy" or "Guess Who". Our first thought was to create the board game in the style of a Clue board, with a variety of rooms in which the player would progress to draw speech cards to say the word and win that card. However, this idea seemed to lack any challenge or way to develop a strategy within the gameplay. Therefore, we began focusing on making the game more challenging by having the players locate different cards to fill in a bingo card. Our next decision was in how the players would move around the board. We felt that allowing players to immediately jump from one location to another without having to progress through a variety of intermediate spaces may avoid learner distraction or boredom. This led us to focus on using a spinner with the different locations as the targets as well as three wild card targets (you choose, skip a turn, and go 2 times). The idea of adding wild cards allows the learner have the feeling that they can control some of the fate of the gameplay. Additional discussions, included having a game web site, which allows the user of the game to download more advanced game cards to use for older audiences or to increase the amount of card options.